How Tyler Florence Brings A Luxe Touch To His Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes are a comfort food classic for many people, and though they may seem incredibly simple, they provide endless opportunities for customization. Some prefer a rustic take and leave their potatoes unpeeled, while others will use a ricer or other tool to ensure they're creating the silkiest, smoothest potatoes possible.
And then, of course, there's the seasoning and mix-ins. There are a few staples found in the vast majority of recipes, like butter, milk or cream, and salt. However, you can add in serious flavor through additions like herbs, spices, cheese, and more, with everyone having their own preferences and secret ingredients. Some chefs even swear by relatively unusual mix-ins. For example, Guy Fieri's go-to mashed potato recipe includes an unexpected ingredient in the mix for an added kick.
However, one of the most important parts of making incredible mashed potatoes is the method — after all, even if you have the most high-quality ingredients, the end result won't be dreamy, creamy mashed potatoes if you don't know what to do with said ingredients. Chef and television personality Tyler Florence spilled the beans on how he achieves impossible luxe mashed potatoes, and it isn't through any particularly strange ingredient. Instead, it's all about the unusual method he uses.
Florence's go-to trick for perfect mashed potatoes
If you've been trying to upgrade your mashed potatoes, you may have picked up a few tips, such as the importance of adding the potatoes to room temperature water rather than already boiling water (per AllRecipes). Florence takes things a step further and suggests you skip the water altogether, instead boiling your potatoes until tender in heavy cream and milk. As his Food Network recipe explains, he uses 2 cups of heavy cream and 2 cups of whole milk as the liquid in which he boils his potatoes for the dish.
The method may seem pretty unusual, but any doubters may want to give it a try at least once. A writer for Tasty tried out six different celebrity mashed potatoes claiming to be the ultimate take on the comfort food dish. While they were initially skeptical about Florence's method, they ended up giving his recipe the highest marks, writing that the end result was "legit SOO GOOD."
His method also has another key step that helps bring extra flavor into the dish — he tosses garlic cloves, fresh thyme sprigs, and a bay leaf into the boiling dairy to help really infuse those flavors during the cooking process.
And, if you're worried about wasting all of that dairy, know that his recipe calls for folding some of it in. Given that whatever liquid potatoes are boiled in becomes dense with starch, it might just help achieve the perfect consistency.